Twitter Counter - How Can It Help You?

Do you want to see your history of followers and your future forecast of followers? Go to www.TwitterCounter.com - you can see your tweeting statistics over time.

Competitor Research

You can also see anyone else's stats - even your competitors - quite interesting if you are doing some research. Some clients that are considering different Marketing avenues feel a medium like Twitter will take up too much time and not have enough return. Although I believe you should focus more on what your doing than always worrying about your competitors - you should have an idea of what their business models look like - investigate what your industry and competitors are doing - Twitter Counter can definitely help with that.

Twitter Rank

Always wanted to know how you stack up on Twitter? You can check out your popularity via the Twitter Rank on Twitter Counter.

Premium Dashboard

Of many features and offerings of Twitter Counter is the "Premium Dashboard". This paid service allows you to see stats on multiple Twitter account stats. These types of reports could be very useful in presenting your Marketing efforts and the some of the ROI of your Twitter Activity. Management may be drawn to these types of charts and the future projections it enables you to view, share and analyze.

Understand what you are doing on Twitter, see you stats, and know where you are going - Twitter Counter may be able to help with that!

SBK (aka Shannon) contact me: sbk@mondaymarketingtools.com

Doing it - Helps Your Network

I had the pleasure to see Julien Smith (@julien / co-author of Trust Agents) last Monday night. He spoke to a group of about 30 social media types in Calgary - hosted by "Third Tuesday" (http://www.meetup.com/third-tuesday-calgary/). I find Julien very passionate about what he does, he is surprisingly young and loves to swear - a perfect combination for a informative and entertaining time.

He spoke to us about the benefits of building social capital - aka "building a tribe. "

Something that he said struck a cord with me "If you don't do it - your network won't do it either". He was speaking about getting out and doing things, meeting people, taking risk.

Julien pushed us to believe that our choices in life affect our friends - okay I agree on many levels. But what he really pushed is that if we open ourselves up - and essentially say YES to more things rather than NO, our friends will in turn start saying YES more often.

So why the heck is saying YES a good thing? If you haven't seen 'Yes Man' with Jim Carey - go see it! He says YES to everything, and what happens is he experiences a lot of really fun and crazy things and he meets a lot of pretty cool people.

This hit home for me. A good friend of mine has decided to sign up for her second mini-triathlon. She asked me to do it with her about 5 times. Seeing as I don't have a bike, I don't know how to swim properly and I am not a great runner - I said "hell no!". There are always excuses to why we can't do things - I have a family, I work crazy hours at work, I am the Chairman of a very complex non-profit board plus I am volunteering on the Ad-Rodeo Sponsorship Committee and I just added involvement on the PR Committee of the Terry Fox Run, oh and I will be helping with Communications for CADE (Canadian Association of Drilling Engineers), so clearly I don't have time - and my body would likely break from attempting this crazy feat.

But over the course of two weeks I got thinking - why not just jump in with both feet? I will get in shape, have some fun with my friends, be a good example for my family and learn a lot doing it. So I agreed to do my first mini-triathlon - I said to myself "why not?".

I also asked another friend if she would like to join me - she feels the same way I do (her first reaction was "are you crazy!"), but she is amazing and open so she is also jumped in with both feet.

So my friend has positively influenced one person in her direct network, and another person in her extended network, and I am sure the energy will keep flowing.

Maybe it is our obligation to our networks to say YES more often.

Let's raise our glasses of Gatorade, and cheers to saying YES to new and exciting things this year, it not only helps us experience life - but it helps our network (and vice versa!).

SBK (Shannon) contact me: sbk@mondaymarketingtools.com

Photo By Scott Prince www.inthepitchblack.com

Is Your FACE Important To Your Blogging Success?

Is it important to put a face and a personality to my business and blog? Should I use a logo or picture for my profiles on Blogger and Twitter? The word on Twitter is that it is highly recommended to have a picture on your profile - and that if you don't people won't trust you as much as they would with a real profile picture along side your name. So personality and your mug shot do count right?

I often feel the need to like the author of the blog that I am following. And I have found myself straying away from blogs where I am beginning not to like the person - even though these people have very good blogs with very relevant and useful information.

Getting people to like you is important for your blog.

I have felt a bit special when Mitch Joel (Six Pixels of Seperation @mitchjoel) sent me a DM (direct message on Twitter), and when Liz Strauss (www.successful-blog.com @lizstrauss) mentioned (thanked) me on Twitter for mentioning her articles and blogs - I even sent her a message asking what time is a good time to post blogs - and she replied (to little old me!) quite quickly. I don't think I would have had that interaction without Twitter.

And what that interaction does is make me feel closer to Liz and Mitch, it makes me like them more, and it makes me more loyal to thier brand, and yes I feel that I like Mitch and Liza as people, even though I have never met them - I like their brand.

Social Media has changed the way we commit to brands. The shift in branding has put faces to brands and accessibility to these people that makes us feels like you can reach out and touch them.

So do we want our customers or fans to feel like they can reach out and touch us? (you know what I mean!). That is what Social Media is all about today.

Yes you can build a business and a brand that is at an arms length from customers, but if you are embracing social media as a marketing tool let down your guard and let people get to know you.

Mixing our personalities with our online brand

It feels imposturous not to inject personality into my blog, as I type along censoring out anything that relates to my family, or my "business learnings" (aka: failures), or what I am wearing while blogging. Would you discredit me because I am writing this in sweatpants while drinking orange juice from a short yellow kids cup? I sure hope not!

Some may believe that your personality is your brand. So here's to embracing our personalities and injecting them into our blogs. Don`t be shy - people might just like us.

SBK (Shannon) contact me: sbkelsick@shaw.ca

Photo by Scott Prince www.inthepitchblack.com

How Much Time Do We Need to Spend on Marketing?

Sales and Marketing can be a tedious task to some business owners who would rather be engineering their products or delivering the services they offer. But sales and marketing is an essential task that can help catapult business owner to success (you must have a valuable product or service in order for any marketing efforts to materialize so lets assume you have some star products and services!).

How much time do we have to put into marketing ourselves?

Here are several ways to determine how much time should be alloted to marketing:

% of Your Time:

• For business owners that have constant business flowing in you may be able to spend only 10-25% of your time marketing your business.
• For new business owners you may need to spend 50-75% of your time marketing.

It is suggested that you track your time (pull out that egg timer, or you can use your iPhone..) so you actually put in the time instead of wondering off to your other business tasks that you may like a lot better! Some suggest that we do the tasks we least like at the beginning of our day - so if you dislike marketing tackle it early on in your day and check it off the to-do list!

Track what is needed with a Sales Pipe Line:

• Draw out a sales pipe line (see reference below for more info), ensure that there is activity in each section of the pipeline, if you are closing all your deals and you have nothing in at the top or "the universe" that you can pull down into your pipeline you may need to commit more time to marketing. It's all about the constant flow of possible business that turns into actual business - keep on pouring (marketing) business into that pipeline.

Compare yourself to your Competition:

• If you are a business owner you are a driven person. If you want to stand out against other companies you will have to put in MORE time marketing your business than your fiercest competition is. Write down how much time you think your main competition is spending on marketing, then double that number (you do want to be doubly as successful than your competition don't you?!) and get marketing.

We need to remind ourselves that it's all a numbers game, the more people you call and connect with the more opportunity for business. So market everyday for a few hours, fill that pipeline, and strive to put more time and effort in that your competition. Market on!

SBK (Shannon) contact me: sbkelsick@gmail.com

Photo by Scott Prince www.inthepitchblack.com

References:

http://thewealthyfreelancer.com/2009/10/how-much-time-should-you-spend-marketing-your-freelance-business/

https://mybrc.com.au/Attracting-Business/Buy-Sell/Successful-Selling/Pages/What_Is_Sales_Pipeline.aspx

http://ezinearticles.com/?101-Marketing-Strategies---How-Much-Time-You-Spend-on-the-Three-Primary-Areas-of-Your-Business&id=3489768

Don't Hate Me Because I Tweet

A Change In Culture: Getting Used To And Appreciating The Use Of Mobile Technology

I had to laugh at a Tweet Chris Brogan (@chrisbrogan co-author of Trust Agents) had a week or so ago. He is a man who has made a very successful career sharing his thoughts about business development and customer service - and how technology and the internet enables us to do that. He Tweets alot, and has over 115,000 followers. He tweeted that he was in a coffee shop, working on his mobile, when an older gentlemen looked at him and said something like "is there no limit anymore!" obviously frustrated with him punching away on his mobile.

But little did this gentleman know that Chris was actually working.

Sure he may have been "just" giving a shout out to a friend, or letting us know how CES was going. But this is all work as he is creating his loyal tribe of followers.

I often wonder what people are thinking when I am walking and typing away on my mobile - do they think I am crazy? Do they think I am just sending notes to my friends? Or do they realize that I am actually working - and working very hard?

Some interesting numbers:

• There are 4,100,000 million active mobile phones in the world (ranking: China, India, US, Russia, Brazil)
• 2.3 billion text messages are sent each day
• Standard Life in the UK changed out worker laptops to Blackberrys
• There are, on average, 357 texts in one month versus 204 phone calls

Mobiles are a vital piece to all businesses and non-profits today. Organizations that are embracing the technology are benefiting from it. Those organizations that are hesitant due to a misunderstanding or fear of the additional costs are loosing ground quickly.

When I got my first Blackberry I had no clue what I was going to use it for, I already had a cell phone that I barely used from my employer. I just knew that I needed a smart phone because I was missing out on a community of conversations and connections. It was one of the smartest purchases I have made. I am more upto speed on the web and new technology than I have ever been - which is very important to my business. And my smartphone has positively affected my stream of business, allowing me to grow my network and connect with clients and peers.

So the next time you see young kids "playing" on their mobiles or adults in coffee shops "texting", stop for a moment and consider they may be doing something very very productive, appreciate the culture change mobiles are creating - it is very interesting, positive, and it sure can be fun!

SBK (Shannon) contact me: sbk@mondaymarketingtools.com

References:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_number_of_mobile_phones_in_use

http://www.blackberry.com/newsletters/connection/business/i709/standard_life.shtml

Now that's using Twitter/Social Media!

Pansy Marketing vs. Jugular Marketing

On January 8th I needed to vent about the constant and annoying need to recharge my ipod, I also decided to mention my dismal collection of music.

So I tweeted:
“Why don't ipod batteries last!? Are the newer ones better? So annoying. I need some new song suggestions - any favs?”

On January 10th I checked my @SBKelsick list (a list of Tweets that mention me). @tomasdoncker showed up. Huh. Never heard of him before, I don’t follow him and he doesn’t follow me.

This is what the tweet said:
@SBKelsick {Sunday Music} listen to "LUCKY DAY" {MP3} ==> http://bit.ly/4R4bQj ¥ Have a soulful day #GroovySexMusic

Interested, I clicked on the link, an MP3 – I listened to it. And it was a kick ass song. I listened to the whole song, kept the link so I can download the new tune, then I went back to the tweet and checked this Tomas Doncker guy out. Says he is a producer, singer, 202 following him, 222 followers. Hmmm. Ok.

I then went back to my work, but I couldn’t stop thinking about what just happened. Come on – this guy is brilliant right? The song was really nice and I will add it to my ipod – maybe check out a few more of his songs too - so he effectively got his product into the hands of an interested consumer. So he is a talented artist but that's not why I wanted to share this story.

He is brilliant because of how he performed what I shall call Jugular Marketing (ha!). He is obviously scouring Tweets (I would imagine he works a lot of hours doing that) looking for mentions of songs and music, then he gets the music into the hands of the consumer – he went right to the jugular. I wanted new music, he found me and boom now I am listening to his music.

Brilliant.

So instead of just following people in the hopes that they will follow you back – I call that Pansy Marketing (yikes I am coming up with a lot today!), go for the jugular – find your real customers that are talking about the products and services you can provide to them, then provide them with what they are looking for.

Thanks for the lesson in Marketing Tomas Doncker. Go for the jugular - maybe that will be your next song?

SBK (Shannon) contact me: sbkelsick@gmail.com

Photo by Scott Prince http://www.inthepitchblack.com/

An Interview with Calgary’s Doug Lacombe – President of communicatto

Doug Lacombe is the President of communicatto located in Calgary, Alberta. His company is a digital marketing, public relations, and investor relations agency that help companies integrate new and old media.

I wanted to interview Doug because he is a very active member in the Calgary Marketing scene. I first saw Doug speak at a Social Media BootCamp that Capulet Communications held in Calgary several months ago. He shared a case study where he injected social media into a non-profit fundraising event – it was a great session.

Doug is an active member in many associations and he is active Twitterer that keeps us in the loop of upcoming events.

He is a true Tribe creator in his Tweeting style – he shares information and ads value without asking for anything in return.

I hope you enjoy learning more about what makes Doug tick:

SBK: Describe what you do.
Doug: Digital media consultant

SBK: IPhone or Blackberry?
Doug: BlackBerry after selling my iPhone (couldn't get used to the virtual keyboard)

SBK: What associations and groups do you participate in?
Doug:

CMA - Canadian Marketing Association www.the-cma.org, Doug is the Director of Communiations with the Calgary CMA

CPRS - The Canadian Public Relations Society www.cprscalgary.com, Doug is the Director at Large - Digital Media with CPRS

Calgary Reads www.calgaryreads.com, Doug is a Director of the Board

CIRI - Canadian Investors Relations Institute www.ciri.org

IABC - International Association of Business Communicators www.iabccalgary.com

Third Tuesday http://www.meetup.com/third-tuesday-calgary/

(Now that I know how busy Doug really is – I should have asked what him how many hours of sleep he gets in a day!)

SBK: How has your career evolved?
Doug: A long and winding road starting in the newspaper business, progressing through software, wireless telecom, newswire, and now consulting.

SBK: What Social Media tool helped your business the most?
Doug: It's a tie between Twitter and blogging

SBK: Where do you see for yourself in the future?
Doug: I hope doing what I'm doing only more of it!

SBK: Where will you be focusong online in 2010?
Doug: Developing strategies for my clients success

SBK: Name your favorite 5 websites or online tools.
Doug: Freshbooks, Tungle, Wordpress, Mashable, Google Apps

SBK: What is the coolest technology you enjoy?
Doug: MP3s

SBK: What do you when you are not on your computer or mobile?
Doug: Read, walk my dog, watch movies

SBK: What does it take to be successful?
Doug: Perseverance, attitude, humility, generosity, and confidence

Doug will be at the upcoming “Third Tuesday” Meetup in Calgary where Julien Smith (co-author of Trust Agents) will be speaking. This event is free and will be fabulous. http://www.meetup.com/third-tuesday-calgary/

For more information on Doug’s company: http://communicatto.com/
Follow Doug on Twitter: @dblacombe

Thanks for your time Doug!
SBK (Shannon) contact me: sbkelsick@gmail.com

Blogging Perfects Your Craft

This week as I listened to a Media Hacks Podcast by Mitch Joel of Twist Image (www.TwistImage.com), I realized that writing a blog is a task that hones your skills, knowledge and mind.

When chatting with a friend today (can I say “chatting with a friend” even though we were emailing each other?) I told her that blogging was like therapy. Although my blog is not really a personal journal of my life like some great blogs are, the writing of my articles makes me stop, be silent (it’s the one time I turn my ipod off) and I get grounded to what is going on around me. I stop reading tweets, emails, answering the phone and I close IM.

The silence then turns into sounds of the keys on the keyboard (lots of sounds as I hit the backspace button more than anything) as I write my next blog post. Blog posts looks easy (I bet some are) - just like chocolate chip cookies look easy to make, but there is thought and effort that goes into each post or batch of cookies. Writing and blogging perfects your craft - whatever your craft or passion is, be it cooking, politics or ant farms. It’s like we have mini essays that are due everyday - we think... do some research... draft.... redraft then POST!

The learning that each blogger gets from the writing experience is why bloggers blog - well maybe not for everyone, but I am sure that bloggers that blog for fame or other reasons have also learnt a lot from the hours they spent writing.

So continue to blog, followers or no followers, and if you are not blogging but you are thinking about it - just jump right in and figure it out as you go. The learning awaits you!

SBK (Shannon) contact me: sbkelsick@gmail.com

Picture by Scott Prince www.inthepitchblack.com
For great info on Blogging check out: Liz Stauss http://www.successful-blog.com/

The Cool Boxee Box - Internet on Your TV

DLink’s latest technology, the “Boxee Box” will allow consumers to stream media from the Internet to their TV. It will also allow for sharing of movies, tv shows and video streams from your computer harddrive.

A brilliant move on Boxee’s part was to make the device incredibly cool looking. The Boxee can sit out in plain eye’s view for all to admire - the Boxee logo even glows. Clever marketing Boxee – they sure aren’t putting Baby in the corner on this one.

On a live stream from CES (http://www.cesweb.org/) in Vegas on January 7, 2010 the Boxee team estimated it will be available for purchase in spring of 2010 and will retail for approximately $200.

Leo Laporte of Twit TV believes this is the “best user interface”.

DLink states “In addition to video content, Boxee users can access great music from sites like Pandora, last.fm, shoutcast, and We are Hunted as well as fun photos from sites like flickr, Picasa and the Facebook.”

I have been looking for something like this. My butt gets sore sitting at my desk. Spring 2010 – I look forward to putting my couch to good use and enjoying the internet on my TV… so thank you Dlink and the Boxee team.

SBK (Shannon) contact me: sbkelsick@gmail.com



http://www.dlink.com/boxeebox

Twitter Quotes By Some Brilliant People

I am inspired by those around me. By reading books and blogs, watching podcasts, videos, and reading Tweets I learn every day. Here are some social media (mainly Twitter) quotes I have come across online in my search for knowledge - thank you to everyone that has a positive presence online and thank you for sharing your wisdom, or your humor ;)

Quotes about Twitter:

"How do you get 100,000 Twitter followers.... it doesn't matter if there's 100,000 if they are not paying attention to you, it's just matters the devotion that each of those people have" Julien Smith, Co-Author Trust Agents

"For the uninitiated, here’s how Twitter works – I have no f***ing idea. I have no idea how it works – or why it is." Jon Stewart, comedian and host of The Daily Show

"The only reason to bother getting 100,000 followers... is so you could shine your spotlight brighter on other people" - Chris Brogan - Co-Author Trust Agents

“The qualities that make Twitter seem inane and half-baked are what makes it so powerful” – Jonathan Zittrain, Harvard Law Professor & Internet expert

"Twitter is a filter for opinionated relevancy" Marc Meyer, Direct Marketing Observations

"If you try to tweet the same message consistently over time, I can tell you safely that I will be the first one to unfollow you! I am in Twitter to enjoy myself, while you are out there to hard sell me something!" Liz Stauss, Successful-Blog.com

“Twitter lets me hear from a lot of people in a very short period of time.” Robert Scoble, Blogger

And one focused on social media for social change:

"I...want people who want the world to change to have a tribe... who have something to say to make a change to make things better" Seth Godin - Author

SBK (aka Shannon) contact me: sbkelsick@gmail.com

Photos by Scott Prince www.inthepitchblack.com

How Consumers and Businesses use FourSquare

FourSquare is popping up across major cities. Load it on your mobile, go to your favourite hang out, “check in” and start collecting virtual points. Its cool, it’s fun, and it’s a huge opportunity to for businesses to lure and attract customers.

Consumer Usage:

• Gives a quick list of businesses around you – coffee shops, printing shops, pubs, malls etc.


• Announces to your friends where you are – maybe they are around too!


• Network with people you don’t know – if you are in a new city or at a conference announce where you are and see if anyone else is around to be-friend


• Appeases those that are competitive – by giving virtual awards or “badges” (like Mayorships) foursquare hits a cord with the competitive type and encourages us to get out and “checkin”. When I become the Mayor of my local Starbucks I got a kick out of it!
  

Business Usage

Coupons
Businesses in the States are offering coupons and deals when FourSquare users check in., just show the server your mobile device screen that displays the deal.

Secret Coupons
Consumers are being lured in the US by businesses offering secret coupons via foursquare. When a user is about to check in, there will be a drop down that says “Special Nearby”, encouraging them to head to a certain business, check in and unlock the secret code.

Raffles
Businesses can offer raffles to consumers who check into their venue – and we all like free stuff don’t we?

To Do Lists
Businesses are creating to do list for users that visit their venue, these lists can engage your customer even further.

Specials
As customers check into your venue – encourage them with Coupons.

In the future?
Maybe we will see “Groupons” for groups of people that check in together!

Have fun FourSquaring – is that a word?

SBK (Shannon) http://www.mondaymarketingtools.com/
Photo by Scott Prince

www.inthepitchblack.com

Additional Notes:
FourSquare is encouraging businesses to tap into this app. http://foursquare.com/businesses/

According to TwitterCounter (www.twittercounter.com) @foursquare has 19,363 followers.

Stuart Crawford’s Blog on FourSquare http://stuart.calgarybloggers.ca/

5 reasons to attend: “Julien Smith on Social Capital, Trust Agents and the New Tribe” on January 18th in Calgary

(yes Calgary, that’s not a mistake)


Five Top Reasons to Attend:

1. Julien Smith (according to his Twitter Profile) is a successful speaker, author and blogger.
2. Julien co-authored the book “Trust Agent”s with Chris Brogan, which hit the New York Time Bestseller list and it was also chosen as one of the best 10 Business Books of 2009.
3. The Event has no charge = free!
4. Julien Smith joined Twitter on Oct 23 2006, I wonder who else was on Twitter then?
5. Julien is entertaining and knowledgeable – check out a podcast from Media Hacks (links below).

“Third Tuesday Calgary” has put this event together. They state:
"Julien will be sharing his insights into the nature of social capital, the role of trust agents and how we can form tribes with others who care about the things we care about. In Julien's words: "We will never need more advertising. We will always need more community, and tighter links between those we care about. Learning to build tribes using the new radios has never been more important, and understanding social capital has never been more valuable."
http://www.meetup.com/third-tuesday-calgary/calendar/12219704/

Podcasts

I have promoted these podcast before – they are very good. They are free, timely (one a week) and Mitch Joel has a variety of people on his “show”.
Julien frequently provides his views on Mitch Joel’s Six Pixel’s of Separation Podcasts- the “Media Hacks” versions. You can download them for FREE in iTunes or from www.twistimage.com/podcast

SBK (Shannon) contact me sbkelsick@gmail.com www.twitter.com/sbkelsick
picture by Scott Prince www.inthepitchblack.com

Oil and Gas and Social Media?

Living in Calgary, I shake my head everyday at the lack of social media adoption by the Oil and Gas Industry. I have spent my entire corporate career in O&G, and what I see are companies (and consumers) that are falling behind in many WOM (Word of Mouth) marketing opportunities and networking opportunities.

How can the Oil and Gas Industry use Social Media to connect with customers and increase sales?

How about posting product and service successes to your Tweeps (aka. Followers)? Your ‘tweeps’ would see the success immediately, rather than hear about it two weeks down the road when the sales rep takes them out for lunch. Even if the sales rep did tell the customer about it over lunch, are you confident that they know the details and can articulate the value to this customer? Getting a weblink with a one page brochure on the success into your customer's hands would be smarter, and it would be a measurable marketing task because you can then see who clicks through to your website to learn more.

And don’t fret about saying “Tweeps” in your next Business Development meeting. You have to say it, so expect some laughs from the uninformed, but don’t let that stop your business from capitalizing on a marketing opportunity.

If successes can be broadcast online in a timely manner why wouldn’t you want to do that?

Who’s online?

Oil and Gas business to business customers are online, and more are coming online. There are over 3200 individuals in the Twellow Pages under the Oil and Gas Industry and there are 701 individuals on LinkedIn that below to the “Oil and Gas Calgary” group, and that is growing everyday.

Oil and Gas Industry – use social media, I know it will pay off.

SBK (Shannon) follow me - www.twitter.com/sbkelsick

photo by Scott Prince www.inthepitchblack.com

Why Didn’t I Have More Mentors?

As I was reading Malcolm Gladwell’s book “the Outliers” I got a little angry. He spoke about successful people – and all of the outside influences, situations people – whatever – that significantly contribued to each individual’s success. It was a great read and will totally change the way that I parent.

picture by Scott Prince of www.inthepitchblack.com (my big bro)

Why I'm Angry

The reason I got angry is why didn’t I have mounds of these people in my life to catapult me to extreme success? Sure I can look back and pinpoint many people that changed my life for the better – but why didn’t someone shake me when I went to College instead of University? Why didn’t someone encourage me to get even better grades in HighSchool? Why didn’t someone take me to their workplace and show me career options? Why did the government office I hoped would help me with career planning tell me that “they couldn’t determine what my interests were – only you can” and shoed me out the door with no reference materials or follow up meetings? Why did these “other” people have good fortune in their lives and my life seemed to steer around it?

Amazing People in My Life

I did have some amazing people in my life – my family , parents of friends that took me camping and skiing, mentors I acquired at work, an HR instructor that sent me running to the Dean’s office to switch majors in College (to Marketing thank goodness), and grade school teachers that likely changed my life.
Is it okay to feel like I could be even more successful than I am now if I had the “right line-up” when I was younger – how would my life be different?

What I do know:

When I see a child or a young adult that needs help, exposure or mentoring I will always step up and try to be that person that somehow helps them - that I owe to the child I was, I think we all do.

SBK (Shannon)

Why I Give a Tweet

The most common comment I get about my profession is “Why would I care about things like Twitter”.

So here I ask myself the same question: “Why give a Tweet? ”

Here's why I Tweet:


I found the Marketing Community

The number one reason I Tweet is because I live in Calgary, Alberta – and we do not have a very strong Marketing Community – what I mean by that is I have found it hard to connect with other Marketing professionals. We do not have very many options for courses, seminars or conferences – although this is improving. So I Tweet to meet other Marketing Professionals in Calgary and other areas that I can learn from and relate to – it’s kinda like finding your long lost family. I also get great event postings and course postings, and that is valuable to me.

I don’t want to be left behind

Look, I am in my thirties and felt like I was loosing ground on being “in the loop” and “cool” because I did not have a smart phone and had no Tweeps to speak of. This was a bit terrifying to me. I look at our current older generation and feel they are missing out on some pretty cool things if they have not fully embraced technology. I can say that my smart phone and all of the other cool technologies I use make my life interesting, fun, and efficient – but most of all they have allowed me to feel like I am in the loop – and that is valuable to me.

I am building my network

I think that following valuable** people and them following me is like meeting someone and exchanging business cards. We exchange cards, check out our websites – and now we have another contact to refer work to, ask for quotes, buy products and services from etc. But this is even better than just having someone’s card to pull out and maybe call, I follow their business (or life) on Twitter and see what they need, do they all of sudden need a new computer? Graphic design? A good restaurant? Maybe I can offer my services or refer a friend? That is valuable to me.
** valuable people to me are people that I want to connect with – either to learn from their postings, or to see what my customers are doing to ensure I understand them.

I think Twitter is fun. If you try Twitter and hate it – it is not going to work. It should be a fun and entertaining activity that you get something out of.

SBK (Shannon)

contact me: sbkelsick@gmail.com

Upcoming Calgary Marketing Keynote Speaker Event

CMA and Digital Alberta just announced what they are calling “New Years Evolution Presentation” on January 19th. They have brought a keynote speaker to Calgary – Alexander Manu to talk about the “paradigm shift” of social media.

The event is to be held at an interesting Theatre Junction Grand and Velvet Lounge to provide for networking and “libations” at 9pm after the 7pm presentation.

Wikipedia notes that Manu “teaches " Innovation, Foresight, and Business Design" at the Rotman School of Management in Toronto and is a Professor at the Ontario College of Art and Design. He is a strategic innovation practitioner[clarification needed], lecturer, and author and since 2007 a Senior Partner and Chief Imaginator at InnoSpa International Partners, a consulting firm”.

It sounds like an interesting night – it's true that Calgary does not hold these types of events very often I will go and check it out, the price isn’t bad - $55 for CMA members. I shall report back and let you know if I have shifted my paradigm after this presentation…

SBK (Shannon)
contact me: sbkelsick@gmail.com


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